Community Art Boxes

Thomas Memorial Library’s Community Art Boxes display exhibits and artwork created by community members united around a common idea or theme. By “walking the boxes” around town you can see a panoply of perspectives and unique interpretations of an idea, as well as the many forms creativity can take!

Walk the Boxes!

Visit all five Community Art Box locations:

  • Thomas Memorial Library
  • Cape Elizabeth Town Hall
  • Cape Elizabeth Village Green
  • Cape Elizabeth Police Department
  • Cape Elizabeth Community Center
A photo of the Community Art Box next to the library's front entrance

What's In the Boxes Now?

The Making of the Declaration of Independence

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution “that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states.” They appointed a Committee of Five to write an announcement explaining the reasons for independence. Those reasons included a list of 21 grievances against the King of England.

In celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the United States of America, our five Community Art Boxes are showcasing those grievances in a rotating display through the latter half of 2026.

As you walk around Town Center, visit each of the boxes to learn more about the origins of our nation and the making of the Declaration of Independence.

If you’d like an opportunity to view a traveling exhibit of the Dunlap Broadside of the Declaration of Indepedence currently on tour in Maine, please check the schedule on the Maine Historical Society Website.

Updated 8/18/26

Our Current Art Challenge

Winter Bouquets

The Art Boxes can be hard on artwork during the winter, but this coming winter we’d love to fill  feature floral arrangements of dried or faux flowers to remind us of warmer days to come. 

If you’d like to share a bouquet to be displayed in one of the boxes, please email Rachel Davis at rdavis@thomas.lib.me.us.

a group of bouqets of purple and beige dried flowers
a bouquet of dried blue and beige flowers and leaves

Submitting Your Artwork

  • Your artwork can be in any medium, two or three dimensions, but please keep in mind the following:
  • The dimensions of the art box display space are: 24″ high x 21″ wide x 18″ deep. Your artwork must be able to fit inside the space. 
  • We will put most drawings, paintings, or collages into a glass-fronted frame or shadow-box. Sculptures will be placed directly in the boxes.
  • Although we hope the boxes will be weather-proof, moisture can sometimes seep in. We will do our best to make sure your work is protected from the elements.
  • We may place several different works of art in one art box.
  • Depending on the number of submissions, artwork will be on display for 1 to 4 weeks. We will let you know when your work is on display!
  • Please provide a completed submission form to accompany your artwork. If you don’t have a printer, you can fill out a copy of the form in the library. 
  • Please bring your submissions to the main desk on the upper level of the library.
  • Submissions from all ages–adults, teens, and children–are welcome!

About the Project

The Thomas Memorial Library was one of twelve libraries in the country to receive a grant from the American Library Association, supported by The Estée Lauder Companies WRITING CHANGE initiative. The grant, which supported ALA’s Civic Imagination Station Pilot program, made it possible for librarian and artist teams to develop community-based art projects that encourage civic dialogue.

TML Director Rachel Davis teamed up with local artist Marie Ahearn to apply for the grant. Through a series of workshops and coaching sessions with the entire cohort, Davis and Ahearn developed our Community Art Box project, which consists of mini-galleries located around the Cape Elizabeth town center.

About the Writing Change Initiative and the Civic Imagination Stations Program

WRITING CHANGE is a three-year global, literacy initiative in partnership with Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, award-winning writer, and Estée Lauder Global Changemaker. Civic Imagination Station Teams were selected from a national application process conducted in June and July 2022. In August, the teams began participating together in workshops and coaching led by Civic Imagination Stations Lead Artists: Willa J. Taylor, Goodman Theatre’s Walter Director of Education and Engagement; and Michael Rohd, founding Artistic Director of Sojourn Theatre and Co-founder of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice. Through these workshops, Civic Imagination Station cohort teams have been developing their own unique arts-based projects rooted in their respective communities. ALA intends for the Civic Imagination Stations program to model processes by which other librarian/artist partnerships can work together to create locally appropriate and meaningful civic imagination projects. 

The selected pilot cohort libraries are: 

  • Bowdoinham Public Library (Bowdoinham, ME)
  • Brandon Free Library (Brandon, VT)
  • Burnsville Public Library (Burnsville, WV)
  • Chicago Public Library Thurgood Marshall Branch (Chicago, IL)
  • Edith B. Siegrist Vermillion Public Library (Vermillion, SD)
  • Fayetteville Public Library (Fayetteville, AR)
  • IU Libraries: Neal Marshall Black Culture Center Library & Herman B. Wells Library (Bloomington, IN)
  • Memphis Public Libraries Cossitt Branch (Memphis, TN)
  • Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Library and Learning Commons, Mount Mary University (Milwaukee, WI)
  • The People’s Library (Fox, AR)
  • St. Louis Public Library (St. Louis, MO)
  • Thomas Memorial Library (Cape Elizabeth, ME)